The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, has said that the Federal Government will not tolerate acts that are capable of jeopardising and disrupting peace in any part of the country, especially in Ondo and Oyo states.
Aregbesola said this in a statement shared on his social media and sent by the ministry’s Director of Press and Public Relations, Mohammed Manga, on Tuesday.
In the statement titled, ‘A time to put unity and peace above all’, the former Governor of Osun State described Ondo and Oyo situations as traumatic.
Newsflash reports that Yoruba rights activist, Sunday Ighoho, and Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, had issued quit notices to criminal herdsmen.
While Igboho asked the herdsmen to vacate Igangan area of Ibarapa Local Government in Oyo, Akeredolu asked unregister herdsmen to vacate Ondo forest reserves.
Igboho had stormed Igangan with thousands of his supporters after the expiration of his quit notice, a situation that caused tension in the area and made the Inspector General of Police, Muhammad Adamu, to reportedly order his arrest.
Reacting to the development in the statement, Aregbesola said, “In light of the simmering tension in Ondo and (northern regions of) Oyo states, the Federal Government implores all citizens in the country to exercise restraint and pursue active efforts on how to use the tools of constructive dialogue, good neighbourliness and the primacy of peace-building as ways of dousing anger and resentment that can only lead to anarchy.
“The regrettable incidences of heightening ethnic and religious tension in our country are, in part, outcomes of political and economic strains that have persistently defined our land and continue to exacerbate security challenges, making the task of development more traumatic.
“There will be no tolerance for any act or behaviour capable of jeopardising law and order and security of lives and property in any part of Nigeria.
“Therefore, as the government is fashioning long term answers to address these problems, it urges citizens to appreciate that self-help and lawlessness cannot offer a path to sustainable solution. It can only lead to greater pain as well as costly human and material losses and disruption of the already difficult task of devising responses that will produce tangible peace and development in the country.”
